Monday, July 31

MANBITES DOG THEATER--Akira Kurosawa's 1980 masterpiece Kagemusha was funded in part by 20th Century Fox, thanks to pleas from popular stateside directors Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Without them, the film--a samurai epic that finds Oda Nobunaga conquering small states one at a time in a 16th-century feudal system--would have been jeopardized. It shows tonight at 7 p.m., followed by Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale, a surreal survival drama, at 10:15 p.m. These films are part of Manbites' "Japan: Then and Now" series, presented, in part, by Indy Film Editor David Fellerath. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Raleigh

ONEIDA, BIRDS OF AVALON

KINGS--Easily one of the most exploratory independent bands to gain some widespread appeal in the past decade, Brooklyn's Oneida has proven that anything goes, throwing the gauntlet with ultra-varied instrumentation and winding melodic convolutions over eight albums. They manage to tease the fringes and maintain reconcilable song structure, a feat more easily obsessed over than accomplished. They join Raleigh rock force Birds of Avalon and the fantastic psychedelic glam of touring Israelis Monotonix. The show starts at 10 p.m. --Grayson Currin